5-Day Itinerary for Switzerland in Winter: Zermatt, Sledging & Extra

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Heading to Switzerland quickly and in search of the optimum itinerary? Don’t fear, we’ve bought you coated! On this 5-day itinerary for Switzerland in winter, I’ll share all of the wonderful locations that it is best to go to in your 5-day journey to this lovely nation. 

Do you know that you are able to do loads of issues in Switzerland in winter that aren’t snowboarding? Learn my article to study extra about enjoyable issues to do in Switzerland in winter that aren’t snowboarding.

In case you’re new to this weblog, hello, we’re Liza and Jose and we usually spend lengthy weekends exploring completely different cities and areas of Europe, whereas working full-time in London. A number of instances per 12 months, we additionally do longer journeys outdoors Europe and naturally, doc all our itineraries on this weblog. We’ve travelled to over 100 counties in whole and you’ll see all of the locations we’ve coated on this weblog right here.

Helpful hyperlinks used on this article:

Resorts: Lodge Bernerhof in Grindelwald, Marriott in Basel, Grand Lodge les Bains in Les Bains de Lavey, Carina Design & Way of life Lodge in Zermatt

Excursions:

Swiss Cross: purchase right here

Grindelwald First cross: e-book right here

Rental automobile: Rentalcars.com

Do you want a rental automobile to go to Switzerland in winter?

In case you’re questioning whether or not you want a automobile to go to Switzerland in winter, the reply is not any, not essentially! Switzerland has wonderful quick and environment friendly trains (with panoramic views), so it’s very simple to go from one vacation spot to a different. Nonetheless, you may want a bit extra time (e.g. this itinerary would most likely prolong to 7 days) to get from one vacation spot to a different. For this specific itinerary for five days in Switzerland, we rented a automobile in Basel (and turned it in in Zurich for no further payment) utilizing Rental Vehicles, as all the time. 

Nonetheless, for those who favor to journey by practice, I like to recommend getting a Swiss Cross – not solely does it embrace many of the panoramic trains in Switzerland, but when it doesn’t cowl some – it nonetheless provides you 50% off the practice fare. On prime of that, additionally, you will get free entry to nearly all of museums within the nation. You possibly can verify the costs of SwissPass right here ->>

The quick overview of our 5-day itinerary for Switzerland in winter & the view on the map

Day 1: Arriving in Basel, an evening at Marriott Basel

Day 2: Lausanne and Les Bains de Lavey. Evening at Grand Lodge les Bains

Day 3: Driving to Zermatt & spending a day there, night time at Carina Design & Way of life Lodge,

Day 4: Driving to Grindelwald very first thing within the morning, sledging at Grindelwald First, night time at Lodge Bernerhof

Day 5: Driving to Lucerne, then to Zurich, flying again from Zurich or Basel

With out additional ado, let’s get began!

5-day itinerary for Switzerland in winter

Our itinerary was a bit bit completely different than this one – we didn’t really discover a lot of Basel this time, however we did spend two great days exploring Basel’s historical past and its Christmas markets on our earlier journey a number of years in the past. Nonetheless, I believe that exploring Basel would match amazingly on this itinerary for five days in Switzerland in winter, so I included a day to spend in Basel beneath! 

Day 1: Basel 

In your first day of our 5 day journey in Switzerland, I like to recommend exploring Basel. Switzerland has 3 essential airports: Zurich, Geneva and Basel and Geneva and Basel have connections with most European cities. We normally purchase multi-city flights (which implies that the flight arrives in a single metropolis and departs from one other), and that was the case on this journey to Switzerland, too. It’s tremendous handy, and I like to recommend it to you, too!

Basel is one in all my favorite cities in Switzerland. It has a big Outdated City with a number of medieval buildings, and it’s particularly fairly earlier than Christmas when a number of Christmas Markets of Basel are in full swing. 

Basel is the third greatest metropolis in Switzerland, and it’s house to over 40 museums. There’s undoubtedly A LOT to do within the metropolis. I like to recommend taking a strolling tour of the town (verify availability on-line right here). 

One of the well-known and delightful museums is positioned barely outdoors the town, in Riehen, it’s known as Basis Beyeler. It has a shocking artwork assortment and likewise the park round it is vitally lovely. 

One other museum that’s value visiting is the High quality Arts Museum in Basel. 

In case you’re occupied with extra issues to do in Basel, learn our article about spending a weekend in Basel in December.

The place to remain in Basel: 

In Basel, we stayed at Novotel and Marriott. Each are good fashionable accommodations, however Marriott’s location is barely nearer to the town centre. One other nice choices is Boutique & Designhotel Volkshaus Basel.

Day 2: Lausanne & Les Bains de Lavey

Lausanne

On our second day in Switzerland, we picked up our rental automobile (books your right here) and drove to to Lausanne – a really lovely metropolis positioned within the French-speaking a part of Switzerland. The drive took simply over 2 hours. Lausanne is positioned on Lake Geneva, has a ravishing and compact outdated city and is house to the Olympic museum (you may e-book tickets on-line right here) 

Lausanne additionally has a stunning Christmas Market – for those who’re planning to go to Switzerland earlier than Christmas, don’t miss the market, particularly the a part of the market positioned near the Cathedral and Château St-Maire.

Les Bains de Lavey

Received drained from strolling round Lausanne and sightseeing? It’s time to chill out! Do you know that Switzerland has fairly a number of thermal spas with beautiful views? Nothing will be in comparison with the sensation of being in a sizzling thermal pool outdoors in winter, surrounded by snowy mountains! On our most up-to-date journey to Switzerland, we went to Les Bains de Lavey and actually liked it. 

Les Bains de Lavey may be very simple to achieve by automobile or practice from Lausanne – it takes round 40 minutes to get there by automobile or 1.5 hours by practice + bus. 

I like to recommend pre-booking your ticket prematurely as typically it will get bought out. You possibly can e-book it on-line on the official web site right here.

You possibly can both keep at Les Bains de Lavey in a single day – there’s a very good lodge known as Grand Lodge Les Bains (verify availability right here) or drive a bit in the direction of Zermatt and keep in one of many accommodations on the best way, e.g. Lodge St. Jodern in Visp (circa 1 hour driving from Les Bains de Lavey) or Martigny Boutique Lodge (circa 15 min driving).

Day 3: Zermatt

On our third day of our 5-day itinerary for Switzerland, we headed to Zermatt. Zermatt is a car-free city, which suggests you may’t drive there. As a substitute, you might want to drive to Täsch, go away your automobile on the official parking zone or one of many non-public ones, and get a ticket for a practice that goes to Zermatt each 20 minutes (much less regularly in early mornings and late evenings). You probably have a Swiss Cross, you get 50% off this practice, which is a small however good low cost. The practice trip takes lower than quarter-hour, and the practice brings you proper to the guts of Zermatt! 

Zermatt is among the most iconic ski cities in Switzerland, and it’s additionally one of the crucial lovely locations within the nation. Nonetheless, there are many issues to do there, even for those who don’t ski. Nicely, for those who do – I like to recommend leaving your baggage within the lodge the place you’ll be staying in a single day and going snowboarding. In case you don’t ski, you may head to the panoramic viewpoint to see the postcard-perfect view of the city or take the Gornergrat Bahn (Europe’s highest open-air cog railway) to the three,089m excessive panoramic viewpoint of Matterhorn.

There’s additionally Matterhorn Museum you may go to within the afternoon-early night (from 4pm to 6pm). In addition to that, Zermatt has a stunning city centre stuffed with eating places and retailers. Our favorite restaurant in Zermatt was the Cheese Manufacturing facility positioned on the Schweizerhof Lodge – fingers down, it was the most effective fondue we had in Switzerland (ensure to strive the truffle fondue).

The place to remain in Zermatt:

Carina Design & Way of life Lodge, Mountain Paradise, BaseCamp Lodge

Day 4: Grindelwald

On day 4 of 5 days in Switzerland in winter, we headed to Grindelwald for a really thrilling exercise and one of many causes we got here to Switzerland in winter. In an effort to get to Grindelwald on time, we would have liked to get up and go away very early – I like to recommend attending to Täsch no later than 8am, so it’s doable to get to Grindelwald by 11am on the newest. There’s a automobile transporter practice (Lötschberg practice) that you might want to take from Goppenstein to Kandersteg. We have been very unfortunate as we have been 1 minute late for the practice and needed to wait half-hour for one more one! The practice prices round 30 Franks, and also you enter it by automobile (a bit like Eurotunnel however it’s an open platform practice). The practice trip takes simply quarter-hour. 

When you exit the practice, it’s simple to drive to Grindelwald, and you may be there virtually very quickly.

Sledging in Grindelwald – Grindelwald First

The principle cause we went to Grindelwald was sledging or sledding, nonetheless you name it. Grindelwald is house to the world’s longest sledge run (15 km), which takes over 2 hours to finish, and it’s tremendous enjoyable! To get to the beginning of the run, you might want to purchase a day cross to Grindelwald First and take a cable automobile as much as the highest (First station). Our cross for the day was kindly supplied by the Grindelwald Eiger tourism board – so large because of them for it. 

If you wish to go sledging in Grindelwald, all you might want to do is lease a sledge (you are able to do it at Intersport up on the First station) for a payment (we paid one thing like 19 franks per individual), put on acceptable garments (I like to recommend a heat jacket, ski glasses, gloves, a hat and ski pants and winter boots – that’s obligatory). These winter boots are an important possibility.

Earlier than sledging in Grindelwald, I used to be underneath the impression that it’s a household exercise and we might be the one couple there. Nonetheless, I couldn’t be extra incorrect! Some segments of the run have been really fairly difficult and we’ve seen only a few children on the sledge run! Most individuals have been {couples} like us or teams of pals. 

With a day cable automobile cross in Grindelwald, you can also make a vast variety of journeys to the First station, and you’ll take completely different routes. Needless to say the cable automobile stops working fairly early (relying on the month). Therefore, I like to recommend arriving early to make the most of the day!

The place to remain in Grindelwald

After the complete day of sledging, you’ll most likely be very drained. It’s most likely the most effective determination to remain in Grindelwald for the night time. A number of the greatest accommodations embrace:

Lodge Bernerhof, Lodge Spinne, Lodge Fiescherblick

Day 5: Lucerne & Zurich

On our final day of 5 days in Switzerland in winter, we explored Lucerne earlier than heading to Zurich. It takes simply 1.5 hours to drive to Lucerne from Grindelwald, however to make the most of the daylight, as all the time, I like to recommend waking up and departing early!

Lucerne

Lucerne is among the prettiest cities in Switzerland. It’s well-known for its wood bridges throughout the Reuss River. It’s a stunning metropolis to discover on a day journey. Among the finest issues to do in Lucerne in winter is discover the Outdated City and watch individuals sitting in one of many cafes going through the promenade & the bridges. We additionally had lunch in Lucerne – at a spot known as Opus – they’ve an important salad bar that was good for lunch.

In case you’re visiting Lucerne in February or March, you may have an opportunity to see the well-known Swiss carnival, Fasnacht. Lucerne has the second greatest carnival after Basel!

Zurich

Our subsequent cease was Zurich. Positioned simply 40 minutes away from Lucerne, it’s a a lot larger metropolis that has loads of issues to do. My favorite issues to do in Zurich in winter are consuming fondue and enjoyable at among the finest spas in Switzerland, Zurich Hürlimann Unhealthy & Spa, which has a top-floor outside infinity pool overlooking the town. 

Zurich has a really fairly Outdated City – I like to recommend spending a while simply strolling across the metropolis. Needless to say Zurich is an enormous metropolis, and it’s a lot better to come back there for a weekend, however on a half-day journey, these are the locations I’d advocate (the spa & the Outdated City). Now we have a separate article about Zurich on the weblog (the most effective issues to do in Zurich when it rains). 

We have been flying again from Zurich airport, so we returned our automobile there; nonetheless, for those who determined to journey by practice, attending to the airport by practice can be tremendous quick and simple!

Abstract of the 5-day itinerary for Switzerland in winter: Zermatt, Grindelwald & extra

I hope you loved this winter itinerary for Switzerland. You possibly can simply prolong it to 7 days for those who’d prefer to spend extra time in Switzerland through the chilly months. In case you’re occupied with different issues you are able to do in Switzerland in winter, I’ve an article that you just may discover helpful – issues to do in Switzerland for non-skiers!

Disclaimer: we collaborated with the Switzerland Tourism Board & Grindelwald Tourism Board for the Swiss Cross & Grindelwald First Cross (they have been supplied to us in change for a evaluate). Nonetheless, all of the opinions are, as all the time, our personal!

Listed below are some articles that you just may discover helpful, too:

Weekend in Basel in winter: greatest issues to do

Our sincere evaluate of the longest sledge run on the earth – Grindelwald First

Issues to do in Switzerland in winter moreover snowboarding

Lengthy weekend in German & Austrian Alps: from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg

Wonderful issues to do in Berchtesgaden